Yarn winding machinery



United States Patent Ofi ice 3,087,685 Patented Apr. 30, 1963 YARN WINDING MACHINERY William Pool, Spoudon, near Derby, England, assignor to British Celanese Limited, a corporation of Great Britain Filed Mar. 29, 1956, Ser. No. 574,744 Claims priority, application Great Britain Apr. 1, 1955 5' Claims. (Cl. 242-432) This invention relates to yarn winding machinery, and particularly to yarn winding machines of the type in which the yarn is traversed to-and-fro along the length of the package being wound by means of a grooved rotating traverse drum.

According to the present invention a traverse drum for use in a yarn winding machine of the kind referred to is formed with a groove extending from near one end of the drum towards the other end and back, and the gap between the leading and trailing edges of said groove is wide at the middle of its length along the axis of the drum and tapers to a narrow gap towards each end of the drum, the trailing edge having a varying helix angle for this purpose, while the leading edge has a helix angle which is preferably uniform and is in any case more nearly uniform than the trailing edge. The term groove denotes an elongated depression, the base of which is contiguous with the internal side walls thereof. By the leading edge of the groove is meant the edge formed between the surface of the drum and the internal side wall of the groove which faces the direction of rotation of the drum, while the trailing edge is the edge between the surface of the drum and the opposite side wall of the groove or slot. The leading edge of the part of the groove extending from one end of the drum towards the other is continuous with the trailing edge of the remaining part of the groove extending in the reverse direction.

The trailing edge of the groove, in the traverse drum according to the invention, can be formed in two parts with different but uniform helix angles, meeting on the centre line of the traverse. Since the trailing edge is the edge over which the yarn passes on its way from the drum to the package being wound, the movement of the yarn from the centre of the traverse to the end is slowed down while the movement from the end back to the centre again is correspondingly speeded up. This results in an even build-up of the package, a reduction in the inertia effect of the yarn as it reaches the end of the traverse and a quick reversal of traverse at the end, with little tendency for the package to build-up at the edges. Extremely high winding speeds can be obtained, especially if the traverse drum is carefully balanced and if the helix angles are kept low. Moreover, the wide gap at the centre of the traverse makes the drum self-threading, a yarn led directly from a source of supply over the drum to the package falling naturally into the wide gap at the centre of the traverse and running thereafter in the groove so as to be traversed to-and-fro along the length of the package. The narrow gap at the ends of the traverse on the other hand, gives close control of the yarn at the ends of the package so that a tendency for the yarn to turn at a point short of the end of the package, or to extend beyond and slip over the end of the package is eliminated.

The traverse drum of the present invention is of particular importance when it is to be used Purely as a traverse drum and not (as is commonly done) for the purpose of driving the package by surface contact therewith. By driving the package independently of the traverse drum several important advantages are obtained. Less tension is required in the yarn to keep it running in the groove; a wider package can be produced with a drum of given diameter; and a relatively small angle of contact between the yarn and the drum (e.g. of the order of 60) can be employed. Furthermore, the package can be driven at a uniform peripheral speed while the traverse drum can be driven at a speed which can be systematically varied so as to avoid what is known as ribbon formation, i.e. the piling up of the yarn, at certain phases in the winding of the package so that successive turns lie immediately over or very close to one another. Yet again, especially with twistless yarns or yarns of very low twist, a dilference between the linear speed of the yarn and the surface speed of the traverse drum imposes a slight longitudinal drag on the yarn and helps to keep the filaments together. For this purpose the traverse drum may run either faster or slower than the linear speed of the yarn; the latter is to be preferred where wider packages, necessitating larger helix angles, are required.

The invention is also of importance in machines to be used as the take-up for artificial continuous filament yarns continuously with their production, when the yarns are entirely without twist and need to be taken up at a uniform linear speed. The uniform linear speed can be brought about by driving the package by surface contact with a driving dmm separate from the traverse drum, the traverse drum being kept spaced from the surface of the package by a small gap, e.g. of the order of or less.

The traverse drum can conveniently be constructed as a central drum, on the plain outer surface of which two separate track rings are mounted, having shaped edges which co-operate to form the traverse groove between them, each track ring providing a leading edge for one half of its periphery and a trailing edge for the other half. The track ring can be axially adjusted to give the required small gap at the traverse ends. The drum is preferably loosely mounted on its driving shaft, e.g. between two positioning collars that are spring-loaded towards one another so as to nip the hub of the drum, this arrangement enabling the drum to he stopped by hand or by means of a brake provided for the purpose, in the event of yarn lapping round it. Where the package is to be driven by a driving drum separate from the traverse drum, it can be mounted on a spindle carried in anti-friction hearings on a swinging or sliding arm, which is spring-loaded or weight-loaded so as to urge the surface of the package towards the driving drum, and is damped to prevent bouncing arising from slight irregularities in the shape to which the package is built. The spring-loading or weight-loading can easily be arranged so as to give a pressure between the package and the driving roll which increases slightly as the package builds up so as to give driving force which increases as the Weight of the package increases, but not in proportion thereto.

By way of example, two forms of traverse drum in accordance with the present invention and the mode of their use in a cheese-winding machine employed as the yarn take-up in an apparatus for the production of continuous artificial filaments will now be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings in which,

FIGURE 1 is a front elevation and FIGURE 2 is a development of one form of traverse drum,

FIGURES 3 and 4 are similar views of another form, and

FIGURES 5 and 6 are a diagrammatic side elevation and front elevation of a machine employing such drums.

The first form of traverse drum shown in FIGURES l and 2 comprises a smooth cylinder 7 of a diameter of 12" and an axial length of 6", carried on a hub 8 mounted loose on a driving shaft 9 but nipped 'between a fixed collar 11 and a slidable collar 12 urged axially by a spring 13. On the surface of the smooth drum 7 are fitted two track rings 14, of 12" internal diameter and 14" external diameter, each having one plane edge 15 which, subject to minor adjustment, coincides with an edge of the smooth cylinder 7, while the other edge 16 is shaped. Round one half (180") of the periphery of each track ring 14, its shaped edge 16 is cut at 17 to a uniform helix angle (measured on the outside diameter) of 1250. The minimum axial dimension of each track ring, at 18, is 1 and its maximum axial dimension, diametrically opposite at 19, is 5 /2". The other half of the shaped edge of each track ring is cut at 21, 22 to two helix angles, one (21) of 1850 covering 60 of the periphery of the ring adjoining the point 19 and the other (22) of 940 covering the remaining 120 of the periphery and extending to the point 18, ie substantially twice the angle covered by the part 21. When both track rings 14 are fitted to the smooth-surfaced drum 7, with the point 19 of one fitting the point 18 of the other, they form between them a groove 23 of a width varying from about near the edges 15 of the composite drum to about 91 at the middle of the axial length of the drum. The composite drum is rotated in the direction indicated by the arrows so that the edges 17 are the leading edges of the groove 23-while the .edges 21, 22 are the trailing edges.

The second form of traverse drum, shown in FIGURES 3 and 4, is similar-in general character to the first but smaller, having an outside diameter of 8%", and is formed with two grooves 24 for winding two separate narrow cheese simultaneously side-by-side on a single cheesesupport tube. For this purpose the drum has 3 separate track rings 25, 26, 27 of 8% external diameter mounted on a central plain drum 28 of 7 diameter. The outer track rings 25, 27 each have one plane edge 29 and one shaped edge 30, and are axially adjustable to provide the desired minimum gap in the two grooves 24. The middle track ring 26 is shaped on both edges 30 to cooperate with the shaped edges 30 of the two outer track rings 25, 27. The shaped edges 30 of the track rings are cut toan angle of 8-45' over the parts 31 round 180 of the periphery of the drum, of 13 over the parts 32 round the adjoining 60 of periphery and of 635 over the parts 33 covering the remaining 120 of the periphery, giving a traverse width of 2" measured axially and a maximum grove width at 34 of /3 more than'the minimum groove width at 35.

The traverse drums described above can be used in a winding machine as shown in FIGURES and 6 which is fittedimmediately below a spinning metier for the production of threads 37 of continuous artificial filaments. Each thread 37 in the metier emerges vertically from the bottom of a spinning cabinet 38 and passes in contact with a roller 39 for applying an anti-static or other lubricant to the yarn. It then continues vertically downwards to engage tangentially with the traverse drum 41 of the invention which is mounted 3' below the cabinet 38. Below and in front of the shaft 9 of the traverse drum 41 is mounted a package-driving roller 42 of 6" diameter, against which is pressed the surface of the package-support tube 43 or ofthe cheese 44 being wound thereon. The cheese is carried on a spindle 45 mounted in ball bearings on an arm 46, pivoted at 47 in front of and below the traverse drum shaft 9. The lever 46 continues downwards and rearwards past the pivot point 47, at which point it is bent to an angle of 135. It carries at its lower end a suitable weight 48. Immediately above the finishapplying roll 39 is a suction duct 49 into which the filaments coming from the spinning metier 38 can be fed until they are thrown-on to the take-up device.

For the purpose of throwing-on, the filaments running into the suction duct 49 are drawn downwards past the traverse roller 41 and between the take-up spindle 45 and the driving roller 42, the take-up spindle being swung back on its take-up lever 46. The lever 46 is then released so as to nip the yarn 37 between the package support 43 and the driving roller 42 and the yarn is drawn forward so that it begins to wind on the package support 43. The yarn passing the traverse roller 41 automatically falls mtof the groove thereof in the neighbourhood of the widest part of the groove and is thereafter traversed to-and-fro along the length of the package support 43 to form the package 44. As the package 44 grows, the lever 46 carrying it is swung back by the reaction between the surface of the package and its driving roll 42. The angular disposition of the weight 48 at the lower end of the lever ensures that the pressure between the package 44 and the driving roll 42 is maintained as the size of the package increases. The surface of the package 44 remains slightly spaced from the traverse drum 41, by a distance of to A throughout the winding of the package.

The shaft 51 carrying the driving drum 42 is driven through an infinitely varying gear 52 from a motor 53 at the end of the machine, and the shaft 9 carrying the traverse drum 41 is driven through a second infinitely vari-' able gear 54 from the first gear 52. The sett ng of the first gear 52 remains constant throughout the winding;

operation but the setting shaft 55 of the second gear 54;;

driving the traverse drum shaft 9, is under the control of: a ribbon breaker mechanism 56 of known construction which is driven from the output shaft 57 of the gear, and oscillates the setting shaft 55 slightly backwards and forwards so as to impose a slight alternate increase and decrease on the speed of the output shaft 57 and the shaft 9. This prevents the traverse from falling into synchronism with the revolutions of the package and so prevents the formation and growth of ribboning. The finish-applying roll 39 is driven by a suitable reduction gear 58 from the input shaft 59 of the second infinitely variable gear 54.

Having described my invention, what I desire to Secur by Letters Patent is:

1. A traverse drum for use in a yarn-winding machm said drum being formed with a groove passing once around said drum while extending from one end of said drum towards the other end and back, the gap between the leading and trailing edges of said groove being wide at the middle of its length along the axis of said drum and taperingto a narrow gap towards each end of said drum, the trailing edge having a varying helix angle and the leading edge a more nearly uniform helix angle.

2. A drum according to claim 1 wherein the helix angle of the leading edge is uniform.

3. A drum according to claim 1 wherein the trailing edge is in two parts having different uniform helix angles and meeting on the centre line of the traverse.

4. A drum according to claim 3 wherein the angle of the periphery of the drum covered by one part is substantially twice the angle covered by the other part.

5. A drum according to claim 1 comprising a plain central drum having track rings with shaped edges mounted on the surface thereof and co-operating to form a traverse groove between said shaped edges.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,274,386 Colman Aug. 6, 1918 1,928,365 Anderson Sept. 26, 1933 1,962,757 Baker June 12, 1934 2,370,923 Siegenthaler Mar. 6, 1945 2,646,227 Calhoun et a1 July 21, 1953 2,752,100 Stange June 26, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 319,493 France July 24, 1902 569,856 Germany Feb. 8, 1933 658,945 Germany Apr. 20, 1938 504,043 Great Britain Apr. 19, 1939 674,615 Great Britain June 25, 1952 728,529 Great Britain Apr. 20, 1955 

1. A TRAVERSE DRUM FOR USE IN A YARN-WINDING MACHINE SAID DRUM BEING FORMED WITH A GROOVE PASSING ONCE AROUND SAID DRUM WHILE EXTENDING FROM ONE END OF SAID DRUM TOWARDS THE OTHER END AND BACK, THE GAP BETWEEN THE LEADING AND TRAILING EDGES OF SAID GROOVE BEING WIDE AT THE MIDDLE OF ITS LENGTH ALONG THE AXIS OF SAID DRUM AND TAPERING TO A NARROW GAP TOWARDS EACH END OF SAID DRUM, THE TRAILING EDGE HAVING A VARYING HELIX ANGLE AND THE LEADING EDGE A MORE NEARLY UNIFORM HELIX ANGLE. 